What are we fighting for?
What are we fight for?
Speech by Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise, in which Dr. Wise poses the question: "What are we fighting for? My answer to mothers and fathers is, enviable and even glorious is your lot to give your son or bless their dedication to the highest and holiest of causes in which a people was ever engaged."

The third Liberty Loan
Patriotic speech by Richard A. Purdy on behalf of the third Liberty Loan drive. Purdy was a member of the Four Minute Men, a national network of volunteers authorized by President Woodrow Wilson to deliver patriotic speeches during the four minutes between reels changing in movie theaters across the country. Coordinated by the U.S. Committee on Public Information, the Four Minute Men generated support...

One hundred million soldiers
Speech by Frank A. Vanderlip, former Assistant Secretary of Treasury and president of the National City Bank of New York (now Citibank). "To win this war, Congress pledged the resources of the United States to the last man and the last dollar. When you applauded that, you agreed that we would be a united nation."

The American soldier
Speech by Warren G. Harding, Senator of Ohio. "My countrymen. Though not in any partisan sense, I must speak of the services of the men and women who rallied to the colors of the Republic in the World War. America realizes and appreciates the services rendered." Text excerpted from hist Speech accepting the Republican Presidential nomination, June 12, 1920.

American rights
A speech by William Gibbs McAdoo, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. "Fellow countrymen, this great Republic is facing one of the most extraordinary situations in the world's history. It would be difficult to exagerate the seriousness of the great conflict in which we are engaged."

America and the war
Speech by Calvin Coolidge, Governor of Massachusetts. "Works which endure come from the soul of the people. The mighty in their pride walk alone to destruction. The humble walk hand in hand with providence to immortality."

The nation in arms
Speech by Franklin K. Lane, U.S. Secretary of the Interior. "We are fighting Germany because she sought to terrorize us and then to fool us... Germany has never asked forgiveness of the world [for sinking the Lusitania]...Belgian starving ...piteous cries of children...friendly, harmless, terrorized people."

At Valley Forge
Speech by Champ Clark, U.S. Representative from Missouri and Speaker of House. "We are assembled here to pay tribute to the deeds of a portion of the brave men who made us free. [Valley Forge was] the most heroic and without question the most pathetic chapter in the history of the American Army."

The republic must awaken
Speech by Warren G. Harding, U.S. Senator from Ohio. "My countrymen: the surpassing war of all times has involved us and found us utterly unprepared in either a mental or military sense."

Labor's service to freedom
A speech by Samuel Gompers, president, American Federation of Labor. "In addition to the fundamental principles at issue, labour has a further interest in the war. This war is a people's war, labor's war. The final outcome will be determined in the factories, the mills, the shops, the mines, the farms, the industries and the transportation agencies of the various countries."